barleycorn
Jan. 9th, 2023 07:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordTheme week! -- round two of odd old units of measure, this time focusing on units of length, starting with the shortest:
barleycorn (BAHR-lee-kawrn) - n., a unit of length equal to 1/3 inch or 8.5 mm.
The length of a grain of barley. In fact, (per Wikipedia) according to an English statute from around 1300, an inch was defined as the length of "3 barly cornes dry and rounde." Fun fact: barleycorns are still used today, fossilized in the definitions of non-metric shoe sizes. The word barley itself goes back to Old English Old English bærlīċ, literally barley-like (used of many grains including barley), from bere, barley, from PIE root *bʰers-, spike/prickle.
---L.
barleycorn (BAHR-lee-kawrn) - n., a unit of length equal to 1/3 inch or 8.5 mm.
The length of a grain of barley. In fact, (per Wikipedia) according to an English statute from around 1300, an inch was defined as the length of "3 barly cornes dry and rounde." Fun fact: barleycorns are still used today, fossilized in the definitions of non-metric shoe sizes. The word barley itself goes back to Old English Old English bærlīċ, literally barley-like (used of many grains including barley), from bere, barley, from PIE root *bʰers-, spike/prickle.
---L.
